Ben Tanzer, AM is an Emmy-award winning coach, creative strategist, podcaster, writer, teacher and social worker who has been helping nonprofits, publishers, authors, small business and career changers tell their stories for 20 plus years.

Ben is honored to work as a TMI Leadership Trainer for The Montana Institute, and also serves as the Founder and Principal of HEFT Creative Strategies, where he believes in helping human beings and organizations be their best selves through story. In this role he's consulted with a range of organizations and individuals including Leo Burnett, Content R|S, lylole, Jeff Pfaller, Inc., Human Elements, Koan, FRIENDS, Chapin Hall, LemonAd Stand, coaches Diane Grimard Wilson & Elizabeth Lava, Story Jam Studio, Children Trust Michigan, TORANA group, and The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence.

He's a Lecturer (and part-time faculty) at Lake Forest College, where he teaches LOOP 202: 21st Century Development and Liberal Arts and The Workplace and was previously an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago, where he taught Self-Management and Freelancing.

Ben also formerly worked at Prevent Child Abuse America from 2007-2016, including serving as the Senior Director of Strategic Communications. While there, he introduced the organization to social media, wrote and managed grants from the CDC and Doris Duke, served as staff lead on the organization's strategic plan, and co-scripted the 2010 Emmy award-winning Ounce of Prevention of Florida “Prevent Child Abuse” public service campaign.

Ben produces and hosts This Podcast Will Change Your Life (300+ episodes and counting), which was launched in February 2010 and focuses on longform interviews with authors and changemakers from around the country and the world. This Podcast Will Change Your Life was named by Elephant Journal as one of "The 10 Best Podcasts to Help you Change your Life." He also produced UPSTATE: The Podcast, a serialized podcast of his short story collection UPSTATE, and produced and co-hosted The Blank Slate Podcast with Sam Tanios, which focused on small businesses owners, the pandemic, being nimble and engaging in a dialog about what’s possible now, where to find hope, and what can be accomplished if we work together.

Ben is a published author as well, whose acclaimed work includes the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. He's also written for Hemispheres, Punk Planet, Men’s Health, and The Arrow, AARP’s GenX newsletter. His latest novel The Missing was released in March 2024 by 7.13 Books.